We had 46 on Sunday on an increasingly overcast day. Over the past week we have seen wonderful signs of fall – crystal clear sunny days with a deep blue sun. By the end of the day at Gospel on the Rivah it turned out that way. The bulletin is here, the readings and the sermon.
We celebrated Myrtle Samuel’s 82nd birthday and also the presence of newcomers.
Ordinary Time is about exploring the teachings of Jesus and this is one of the climax points in the Gospel – “Taking up the cross”
In Mark 8:31-10:34 Jesus predicts his death and resurrection three times. After each prediction, one or more of the disciples objects (8:31; 9:31-32; 10:33-34). In each case, Jesus offers a correction that warns them that their desire needs to be replaced by his. Their desire to gain prestige and luxury must be replaced by willingness to suffer and to embrace loss (Mark 8:34-38). Their desire to lord it over others must give way to a desire to serve those society views as insignificant (9:35-37).
There are two questions in the passage -"who do people say that I am?" And, more to the point, in light of all this "who do you say that I am?"
Peter gets answer correct, but the meaning wrong. He was a man of his time. The expectation of a "messiah" in first century Israel was that the messiah would sweep in and bring about the promised Golden Age. The messiah would be like King David, and would destroy Israel’s enemies and bring peace and prosperity to the land. Jesus disavows this kind of royal triumphalism and instead asserts the "suffering son of man" instead. To be fair he seems to be caught off guard and overacts
So great is his shock, perhaps, that he can’t even hear the part about rising on the third day. All he hears is the word — the awful, unthinkable word — that the Hope of Israel will be killed. And so he protests…and is rebuked.
Who would imagine that the God of heaven and earth would redeem Israel and the world by dying a criminal’s death? Who could predict that God’s strength would be revealed most fully in weakness or that God’s judgment would be rendered so completely in undeserved and unexpected mercy?
The verses are about self-denial. This is not about giving up pleasures but it is about complete redefinition. You become part of Jesus team. And like any pitcher you never consider looking at the entire game but one pitch at a time, then one inning or in this case following one step at a time with Jesus
Jesus calls us to separate ourselves from what defines us. A person in Jesus’ culture was defined by those to whom he belonged — usually household or kin. Jesus calls people to embrace new understandings of identity. The scripture does not say "taking up the cross" but "their cross" or “our cross”, and not “the cross.”
Those who follow Jesus, associating with this vividly rejected Christ, take on an identity and a way of living that pose threats to the world’s corrosive ideologies and idolatries.
The example in the sermon dealt with trappist monks from France in Algeria. "But in the area around the monastery, the monks maintained an oasis of calm and peace. Because they were pacifists, the monks believed that the war was immoral, and so they refused military protection from the government, and they also refused to help the insurgents."
Today "taking up one’s cross" seems to mean putting up with one’s circumstances in life. When someone has a life difficulty, for example, sometimes it is said that this difficulty is the person’s "cross to bear."
The cross in this scripture affects everything. Carrying a cross – sets you apart and sets you up for trials and tribulations. In Jesus time the metaphor would have meant setting you for crucifixion
The monks in the sermon had a choice – in the midst of deadly civil war in Algeria – stay or leave. "The monks made their final decision based on who they were –followers of Jesus. They voted to stay put at their monastery. As followers of Jesus, their first priority was to continue to live their lives of love and service in this area of Algeria, even at the expense of their personal safety."
However, and this is the “inverted logic.” – to concede the state’s sovereignty in death is to refuse its authority in life. It shatters its powers
In The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn describes how he learned to do this amid the starvation and brutality of a Soviet prison camp:
"From the moment you go to prison you must put your cozy past firmly behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself, ‘My life is over, a little early, to be sure, but there’s nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I am condemned to die — now or a little later. . ."’ Confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogator will tremble. Only the man who has renounced everything can win that victory.
Solzhenitsyn discovered in the gulag what my friend also knows — that there is a strength that comes from renunciation of life, a strength that triumphs even over the powers that threaten death. Death, the last enemy, has already been defeated by Jesus’ rising from the dead.
Taking up our cross reflects life’s struggles which we all face to stay true to ideals and teachings, in this case Jesus Christ. As the sermon concludes "So–as Christians, each of us with our differing perspectives– how should each one of us, followers of Jesus, proceed in our uncertain future in this world full of hatred and conflict?" There is no definitive answer in the sermon – we have to answer it for ourselves.
The process of pain came lead to enormous gifts: Strength building, faith strengthening, community celebrating gifts. The sermon ends with a description of the words in the Gospel – "Stern, daunting, challenging, death dealing and life giving, life changing words"